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Rolling stock
Bilbrook Light Railway-Rolling stock page
My first wagon. The box is made first from planking with an MDF base and the solebars from good quality planed timber slightly thicker than the bearings. The wheels come from the Engineers Emporium already mounted on axles and complete with bearings. I simply cut the solebars to length, screwed them together and bored out the holes for the bearings (10" centres) so that they were a tight fit. This ensures that the axles are mounted parallel and at the same height. The holes in the solebars were liberally coated on the internal surface with PVA adhesive.The solebars were then separated and glued to the base of the wagon with the axles in position and the whole thing checked square. When firmly set the headstocks were glued on and when they were set the whole thing was strengthened with metal brackets-solebar to headstock and headstock and solebar to wagon base. The bearings were retained inside the solebars by fixing an offcut of the solebar material over the holes in the solebars and  for added durability a large metal washer was inserted between the bearing and the offcut to protect the wood from any sideways movement of the axles. A hole in the offcut allows for future lubrication.  Plastic angle was used to cosmetically strengthen the corners of the wagon. Round headed screws were used in the construction as these look like bolts when the wagon is painted. Lettering was added to suit. Couplings were made using standard metal brackets from a DIY store.
The riding truck
The construction of this was similar to the wagon except that the body was made from MDF to a design by Chris Rennie. The only other modification is the use of wooden footrests for the driver. I was concerned that the construction would not stand up to my weight but it continues to provide good service and has stood up to a number of derailments. The only improvement I can think of is some form of springing, however I think it would require some complex metalwork.
The carriage
The bodyshell was also made of MDF but stipwood was used to simulate framing. The roof was made from wooden strips on formers covered with thick paper and paint. All vehicles have a several liberal coats of varnish as they have to be stored in the garden shed all year round. The roof also has a seat as a token gesture of comfort for passengers.
All stock runs well on my 10ft radius curves and through my homemade points. The railway does suffer from "wheel-squeal" (due to solid axles) on the tight curves. This seems to stop if the track is wet so I have retro-fitted a drip feed system to my wagon(see below).
These two pictures show how the drip feed system works. The whole thing cost less than £5 and is very simple. I obtained a water tight plastic sandwich box from the kitchen and bored a small hole in the side, just above the bottom, into which I fitted a small piece of copper pipe which was pre-bent to suit. The other end of the pipe passes through the wagon floor. I used silicone bath sealant to attach the sandwich box to the wagon floor and to seal the pipe to the box. You can just see the copper pipe in this picture. The lid of the sandwich box requires a vent.
On the underside of the wagon I used plastic pipe to connect the copper pipe to a control valve then to a T piece and two delivery tubes which I fixed in such a way as to deliver water directly onto the rail head. The pipe valve and T piece are freely available at pet shops as they are usually used to deliver air to aquaria. I had forgotten that the water will not flow out of both pipes at once as one delivery pipe acts as an air vent for the other, however in use the flow switches from one delivery pipe to the other so it really does not matter. Initial trials show that the flow does not have to be switched on all the time.

 

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